# Artemis III's rocket is stacked. Here's what the mission will — and won't — do

> NASA joined the Space Launch System core stage to its boosters at Kennedy. Artemis III's job is now rendezvous and docking practice with SpaceX and Blue Origin landers, not a Moon landing.

Published Oct 29, 2026 by TechMeasured Staff · Science · Canonical: https://techmeasured.com/science/artemis-iii-sls-stacked-what-the-mission-will-do

NASA has finished stacking the core of the rocket for **Artemis III**. Inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, technicians used a custom lifting beam to move the **212-foot Space Launch System core stage** from a neighbouring bay and lower it between its twin solid rocket boosters on the mobile launcher.

## How the stack came together

- **October 22:** core stage lifted from the transfer aisle.
- **October 23:** positioned horizontally in the transfer aisle.
- **October 25:** set between the boosters, completing the "short stack."
- **October 28:** NASA reported integration complete.

## What happens next

1. **Testing and checkouts** of the integrated stack inside the VAB.
2. **Rollout to Launch Pad 39B** for a **tanking test**: liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen loaded into the core stage only, with launch teams rehearsing countdown procedures and timelines.

NASA hasn't given a launch date in this update.

## The mission, recalibrated

If you last checked in on Artemis a while ago, the plan has changed. Artemis III will carry NASA astronauts **Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas**, plus ESA's **Luca Parmitano**, on Orion atop SLS. Its goal is to **test rendezvous and docking between Orion and commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin** — the critical handoff that future crews will rely on to actually reach the lunar surface.

In other words, Artemis III is a dress rehearsal for landing rather than the landing itself. That's a less dramatic headline, but it's the step that de-risks the hardest part of the architecture: two very different spacecraft, built by different companies, meeting and mating in deep space.

## Also this week

- **Reid Wiseman**, commander of Artemis II, was named to a deputy leadership role at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech manages.
- **Vietnam** became the newest signatory of the Artemis Accords, the international framework for lunar exploration.


## Sources

1. [NASA — Artemis III SLS core stage joins boosters at Kennedy](https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/artemis-iii-sls-core-stage-joins-boosters-at-kennedy/)
2. [NASA Science — October 28, 2026](https://science.nasa.gov/2026/10/28/)
3. [NASA — Caltech names Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman as JPL deputy](https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/jpl/caltech-names-artemis-ii-commander-reid-wiseman-as-nasa-jpl-deputy/)